Tesla US dealership disputes

The electric car company Tesla has faced dealership disputes in several US states as a result of local laws. In the United States, direct manufacturer auto sales are prohibited in many states by franchise laws requiring that new cars be sold only by independent dealers.

Tesla maintains that, to properly explain to their customers the advantages their cars have over "traditional" vehicles with an internal combustion engine, they cannot rely on third-party dealerships to handle their sales. Economists have characterized laws that require independent dealers to sell cars as a form of rent-seeking that extracts rents from manufacturers of cars and increases costs for consumers of cars while raising profits for car dealers.